The invention relates to strand dispensing systems and particularly to systems designed to lay wires in a predetermined order for a wire harness.
Wiring harnesses are used in most electrical appliances and electronic equipment items, as well as vehicles, boats, and aircraft. Of the enormous number of harnesses made, the great majority are assembled completely or partially by hand. Automated machinery has been developed for this purpose, as exemplified by U.S. Pats. No. 3,699,630 and 3,804,130, although the number of machines of all types actually being used is minuscule. The units disclosed in the above referenced patents function adequately but are susceptible to several operational problems, the most important relating to the fact that the individual lengths of wire are cut at a point well away from the actual point of dispensation, which results in somewhat inexact lengths being produced due to wire curl, and a feed mechanism to introduce the new wire into the feed head is required.